Oct. 2, 2013

Tigers shortstop/leftfielder Jhonny Peralta / Kirthmon F. Dozier/DFP

Written by

Christine Brennan

USA TODAY Sports

Jhonny Peralta deserves nothing but scorn from the Detroit Tigers and their fans. He is a cheater, a title that will follow him for the rest of his career.

If Major League Baseball had the tough drug-testing policy it should have, Peralta would have been suspended for a year or two, not just 50 games, for taking performance-enhancing drugs provided by Biogenesis, the now-infamous South Florida clinic that doled out testosterone and human growth hormone to greedy major leaguers as if it were handing out peanuts and popcorn in the stands.

But because MLB hasnít yet caught up with the Olympic drug testing model of two years for the first offense and a lifetime ban for the second, Peralta is now back. He played in three games at the end of the regular season, leaving the Tigers with a fitting moral dilemma for their American League Division Series starting Friday in Oakland: eschew all responsibility as leaders in the community and use him in the playoffs, or follow the admirable example of the San Francisco Giants last year in the Melky Cabrera case and do the right thing ‚ÄĒ keep Peralta out of the postseason, likely ending his days in Detroit.

The Tigers donít have to announce their decision until Friday, but by all appearances, itís already made. It looks as if they are going to play the guy. They brought in Jose Iglesias to replace him at shortstop, but they want his bat in the lineup ó Peralta hit .303 with 11 home runs and 55 RBIs in 107 games this season ‚ÄĒ so it appears theyíre making a place for him in left field, where Peralta is not known as a top-flight defensive player.

ďIf you accept that bat, then youíd be willing to accept what happens in left field,Ē Tigers manager Jim Leyland said the other day.

Now thereís a baseball answer for a baseball issue. What else would we expect from Leyland, one of the best managers in the game?

But there are others in the Tigers organization who should know better, who should realize that this decision should be about much more than baseball strategy. Itís a referendum, frankly, on just how serious Major League clubs really are about cleaning up their sportís very serious steroid problem.

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Using the Tigers as our test case, presuming they play Peralta, we have our answer: Not very. They are nowhere near ready to do what they really must to rid their sport of performance-enhancing drugs.

A 50-game suspension here and there just wonít cut it. Thatís the Olympic equivalent of stripping Ben Johnsonís 100-meter gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but allowing him to run in the menís 4x100-meter relay a week later. It would have been unthinkable, even then, in the Olympic world.

To make a strong statement to your team and to the young people watching it play, a club has to take away meaningful things from cheating players. Clearly, the Tigers have no inclination to do that, which is all the more disappointing because they were given the perfect primer on this subject last year by the Giants, who, ironically, ended up beating them in the World Series.

In 2012, the Giants decided not to bring Cabrera back for the playoffs even though he would have been eligible for the National League Championship Series. He was having a terrific season; he would have won the National League batting title had he not taken himself out of consideration for the honor. (He was hitting .346 when he was suspended.) As important as Peralta is to the Tigers this year, Cabrera was more important to the Giants last year.

Sadly, the Tigers have bungled the Peralta situation from the beginning. The day that he was suspended, Leyland of course was asked about him. Instead of taking the opportunity to talk to kids about cheating, or mention the dangers of PEDs, or offer any worthwhile thoughts at all, Leyland replied, ďSee ya guys. You were told I wasnít going to comment on that,Ē and his pre-game news conference was over in less than 90 seconds.

Based on that performance, itís no surprise that the mistakes keep on coming in Detroit.